What John Major said in China – and what Theresa May did not

Major travelled to Beijing as British PM in 1991 and held forth in public about human rights

When John Major travelled to Beijing in 1991, the then British prime minister faced criticism as the first major western leader to visit after the Tiananmen Square massacre two years earlier had made China an international pariah. His host was Li Peng, the notorious premier known as the “Butcher of Beijing”.